Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein has been promoted to the West Indies’ 15-man T20 World Cup squad as a replacement for spinner/all-rounder Fabian Allen, after the latter player failed to recover from an unhealed right ankle injury. The ICC technical committee approved the change today. Hosein, a 28-year-old Trinbagonian, only debuted for …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Narine shows what WI will miss as post-CPL lessons continue in IPL play-offs
It would not be accurate to say that West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine almost single-handedly put the Kolkata Knight Riders into the IPL semi-final on Monday. Why? Because accuracy requires that we say ‘former West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine’. Mr Roger Harper and his selection panel were well aware that, …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Fitness fears haunt WI fast men; should Gayle mirror India’s MS Dhoni?
I wish to leave veteran West Indies batsman Chris Gayle aside for the moment and turn my attention to a not unrelated issue. My interest in the fitness of West Indies players and the granting of medical exemptions has been further piqued with the recent injury struggles faced by the …
Read More »T2021 W/C: A tale of two Gayles—veteran’s IPL exit might make Harper’s defenders blush
He was once the best of them. But don’t blush, baby! He may now be the worst of them. Or close to it… The day was 21 September 2021 and the self-proclaimed ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle was celebrating his 42nd birthday. It was the first game of the re-started IPL …
Read More »T2021 W/C: In spin-friendly conditions, will WI miss Hosein? Did Ramdin pay for ‘un-West Indian approach’?
It is time, some say, for Romario Shepherd to be on the side. Some suggest that he should have got the nod over Ravi Rampaul, a soon-to-be-37-year-old seamer whose once-blossoming international career nose-dived in the wake of injury and weight issues. That was then. Now he is back, in a …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Jackman sees flawed logic in calls to drop Gayle and add Holder to WI squad
“[…] For years the destroyer of bowling attacks, Chris Gayle is but a shadow of the fearsome figure he once was. His run production rapidly declining in recent years, he has endured a near-barren 2021 for both WI and the Patriots. “[…] If, as the multitude insists, Gayle cannot be …
Read More »T2021 W/C: ‘Reds’ & McWatt request overhaul of WI selection policies, starting with fitness requirements
“[…] Foremost among the policies now obviously in need of desperate reform would be that of the fitness standards. “As numerous former players have suggested, the duplicity of allowing some players to be granted fitness exemptions while others are deemed to have failed to meet the required standards has to …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Polls apart? CWI and Wired868 panels agree on Gayle, differ on Bravo, Holder
Allyuh tink dis selection ting easy? Allyuh know who Joshua Bishop is? No? Well, the 21-year-old Barbados Royals’ rookie left-arm spinner’s name somehow ended up on a list of three dozen West Indies players named by the 12 panellists asked to select their WI dream team for the 2021 T20 …
Read More »T2021 W/C: Gayle’s last dance: in defence of the West Indies’ pick for the ‘Universe Boss’
“Yes, I want to play for West Indies—that’s where my heart is,” veteran West Indies cricket star Chris Gayle told ESPN, during an interview in March 2021. “I am never going to turn down anything pertaining to West Indies cricket at this particular time. “[…] Hopefully I can perform, help …
Read More »T2021 W/C: ‘The best of the available candidates’, you say?! Best on differing value of the Bravos
Darren Bravo is a gifted left-hander who, for years, was the best batsman in the region and a clone of his cousin, Brian Charles Lara, the best batsman the country has produced. But that was once upon a time. Darren Bravo vintage 2021 is not vintage at all. On merit. …
Read More »T2021 W/C: A reflection on selection, concussion and Romario’s extraordinary exhibition
For a selector, concussion is an occupational hazard. All the more, as Ken ‘Jaiks’ Jaikaransingh has already noted above, if you are a West Indian selector. Let me remind you of a truth every Trini sports fan knows: in T&T for certain, probably in the West Indies as a whole, …
Read More »T2021 W/C: From ‘Universe Boss’ to Walsh Jr; Best looks at ups and downs of Harper’s WI picks
West Indies lead selector Roger Harper is pleased with his and his selection panel’s handiwork. Good for him. Not I. “I expect the team to do very well,” he confidently declared during the media conference called to defend his and his fellow selectors’ work on Thursday. “I think we have …
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